Connacht out-half Jack Carty made his Ireland debut at the weekend, stepping on to the pitch to replace Johnny Sexton in the closing minutes of the Guinness Six Nations win against Italy.
"It was Thursday that I got the nod I was going to be on the bench," Carty told Jim Hamilton and Andy Goode on The Rugby Pod.
"It was a bit of a scramble to get my folks and family and mates over. I had about 16 people over there in the end.
"I didn't mind if it was even just 30 seconds, I was delighted to just get onto the pitch; to finally get the monkey off the back and get a cap after a lot of years of trying.
"It's one of those things where you're wondering if you're going to get on or not. It was getting to the 65th, 70th minute [and it was] squeaky bum time, but I was delighted to get on."
The 26-year-old had to do some wheeling and dealing to get those 16 tickets for the game.
I got Bundee Aki's three, I got Quinn Roux's three, I got Sean Cronin's three, I got my own and did had to do a bit of swapping and dealing on the side to get other ones.
They managed to get there in the end, it was like the Brady Bunch over there, there were so many of us.
He also received help from his teammates with the post-match jersey swapping.
"I obviously had the two of my own and both then both Pete [O'Mahony] and Josh van der Flier offered me their jerseys.
"I wanted to keep my two, one for myself and one to put up in my club back home. I swapped Josh's one with Ian [McKinley], I was fortunate enough to get his one."
Carty did not have his squad initiation at the weekend but he still had to sing in front of a large crowd at the post-match dinner.
I'm not looking forward to whenever that [squad initation] will be.
I had to sing at the after match function in front of 300 people. I was more nervous for that than the actual game.
I had to do it twice, believe it or not. I had to do Stand By Me by Ben. E. King. That went down well.
My missus and a few of the other girlfriends, they go the bus back and informed us that we had to do a duet on the bus back. You can imagine how that went down. I had to do Ronan Keating on the bus back, that went down well.
The former Roscommon minor footballer was on the team bus which received a bizarre police escort around Rome on Saturday.
"It was crazy," said Carty.
"I was down towards the back and we heard this laughing.
"At the best of times - I know you lads have played abroad - the driving in France and Italy can be a bit erratic.
This fella, I don't know if it was his first time or if he got a bit excited, he was in and out, driving straight on towards a bus and then swerving at the last minute."
Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
